Monticello in the Rain

Wednesday, October 12th.  It rained most of last night and we were still getting bombarded by acorns.  It was quite overcast when we got up and both the parkways were in thick fog.  So we drove to Monticello, the home of Thomas Jefferson.  Monticello is located just outside of Charlottesville, a beautiful old city.

Jefferson originally had 8000 acres and it took him almost 40 years to complete the house as we see it today.  It's about 6100 square feet and is very well appointed.  Lots of unique finishing touches that Jefferson thought of himself.  He has a huge library and most of the books are in one of the 6 other languages he spoke besides English.  His wife died during childbirth in 1779.  They had two daughters.  One of them never lived at Monticello.  The other had 11 children and the whole brood moved to the estate.  Jefferson died in 1826.  There is a family cemetary on the property.  Anyone that is a documented decendent of Jefferson can be buried there.  There are currently 2000 such people living today.

The home was designed to take advantage of the great views of the Blue Ridge Mountains.  But you could barely see beyond the parking lot today.